I Don't Get You, But Maybe I'm Wrong
by whereisthefreakingnalu
Summary: Modern AU. In which Lucy works at a stereotypical street-corner coffee shop, and Natsu is the weirdest customer she sees on a daily basis. At least he makes for interesting conversation. Nalu. T for occasional cursing.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, uh, so how hot is the Aztec hot chocolate?"

Lucy blinks. It's New York, 7 in the morning, and somebody is asking her a question. What is this.

"Do you mean temperature-wise?" she asks. The customer has spiky hair. It is pink. Her mind cannot form long sentences. Somehow, she is still shocked by his hair color.

"Oh, yeah. And spice-wise?"

His voice is hot. He is hot. He is asking about the hotness of his drink.

Lucy almost giggles, but then she snaps herself out of her morning daze. "Oh. You mean honestly?"

The customer grins – it's a cute grin, slightly crooked and wide like the sun. It pulls up higher at the left corner to expose what look like fangs (sharpened? Well… she shouldn't judge other people's life choices…). "Yeah, I guess so."

"It's, well… slightly warmer than lukewarm, barely spiced. I'm sorry."

"Uh, can I get that at like a boiling temperature? With hot sauce, possibly?"

Not for the first time, Lucy is taken aback by this abomination of a human being. She does not understand him.

"I… uh, I don't know if we have hot sauce," she says, her smile tightening in confusion. "I'm sure we can heat up your drink, though."

"Hold on a second," responds the customer, digging through a shoulder bag that hangs by his waist. He throws a few crumpled papers on her counter as he rummages through his textbooks. Lucy kind of wants to wrinkle her nose, but she gets too distracted by the absolutely appalling doodles of pegasi (?) on his Environmental Studies homework.

"Ah, sorry," says the customer. "I thought I brought hot sauce with me, to put on my snack. Looks like I forgot." He laughs, a little sheepishly, and that laugh alone makes the corners of her mouth quirk up into a genuine smile.

His laugh is so honest, and just one of those laughs, y'know? She feels like it deserves a real smile back.

"Well, maybe next time," she says. And then her heart slams in her chest 'cause that's like Coffee Shop 101 – you don't just pressure your customers into coming back.

But the customer smiles so big she feels like it shouldn't fit on his face and flashes her a thumbs-up. "Yeah! Next time, for sure. I'm all fired up!"

Her heart goes back to beating normally. She can breathe again. She didn't screw things up. Calming down, she flashes him a thumbs-up in return. (But, "_all fired up?_" That was a weird thing to say…) "Alright, next time, we'll put it in for you," she chirps back. "One Aztec hot chocolate? Will that be all?"

And then he pays and lingers for a moment while Mira makes his drink, and then… he's gone. A little too soon. His upbeat personality is so rare in the big city's early morning, and Lucy just wants his presence back.

The shop returns to a quiet lull. Lucy relaxes and mentally prepares herself for the next rush hour – lunchtime.

(She thinks about the weird customer once or twice, but that's just because it's so strange to see an honestly happy human being out there.)


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy's got the morning shift _again_, and she is dying. This is pure torture.

Outside, the air is turning cold, and gray smog rolls over the honking cars. Inside the coffee shop, it's nice and warm and smells overwhelmingly of coffee beans, and Lucy is about to curl up on the ground and go to sleep and _ugh_ she has Philosophy after this and...

Her brain is slowing down again, but she hasn't messed up an order or made a fool of herself yet, which is pretty rare.

Her apron is itchy. She can feel her hair falling out of place. Yukino Aguria, from her Astrology class, is sitting in a booth by the window, sipping on a small latte and looking perfectly put-together. Lucy wonders if she's being judged.

Suddenly, she hears the little bell jingling and moves to the register again, putting on a tired smile. "How can I help you?"

"Aztec Hot Chocolate," she hears a cheery voice say. "I brought hot sauce this time."

She looks up to see tan skin, freckles, and spiky pink hair. His smile nearly blinds her, and she idly wonders how anyone can be so happy this early in the morning.

"Oh, cool," she smiles back at him.

Hot guy who asks about hotness has returned, after three weeks of her waiting. She'd pretty much given up.

He rummages through his bag of crumpled papers to find a small bottle of Tabasco sauce, which he slams on the counter with a bright grin that reveals his weirdly sharpened teeth.

"Here ya go…" He squints at her boobs. "Luigi."

Lucy feels compelled to cover her chest. What a pervert!

Slowly, she realizes he was just reading her nametag. The urge to slap him disappears – then it returns full force when her brain finally figures out what he said.

"My name is _Lucy_," she says, her smile now somewhat forced.

"Lucy… what a weird name," frowns the pink-haired man, and a vein jumps in her forehead.

"It's better than Luigi," scowls Lucy, the smile sliding from her face.

He beams again. "Well, Lucy suits you," he says, and her heart flutters just a little. But not really, 'cause she's too sleepy to even spell the word flutter. Or to realize that might've been a backhanded comment, what with him saying Lucy's a weird name and all…

As it is, a soft smile slides onto her face. "Thanks," she mumbles, her cheeks flushing. "Do you want your Aztec Hot Chocolate heated extra?"

The man's eyes brighten. "Yes, please," he says. "And with the Tabasco sauce."

He hands her the money, and, since Mira's out sick for the day, she takes a cup and turns to make his drink herself.

Just as she's turning to the hot water dispense-y machine thing, the man grabs her arm suddenly and takes the paper cup from her hands. His hand on her arm is rough and abnormally warm and... gentle. He's holding her arm like Capricorn would back home.

Shaking the thought away, she gapes at him indignantly for randomly grabbing her and is legit about to snap at him, but then he digs through his shoulder bag again and extracts a fat Sharpie marker. Sticking out his tongue in concentration, he turns the cup and writes something on the side.

Slightly appalled, Lucy decides that if he hands her a cup with his number written on it, she's going to ignore it completely. It sounds kind of bitchy, but she is sick and tired of being hit on while she's trying to make some pocket money.

But then he holds up the cup for her to see, grinning widely. On the side of the cup is scrawled a simple "Natsu." Lucy frowns in confusion; if he just wanted to give her his name, there were a lot of better ways to do so - many of which wouldn't have given off creepy "I'm grabbing you" vibes. Anyways, Natsu is a weird name, but... it suits him. (Also 'cause it's weird, and he's weird, so yeah.)

He hands her the cup back and their fingers brush.

(It doesn't make her heart jump, or her breath catch. It doesn't make her feel bad for thinking badly of him. No, not at all.)


End file.
